Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Bad day behind the wheel

So I got my first speeding violation today - inside my compound!!  They started to crack down on speeding in an effort to keep our kids safe as many of them play in the streets.  I'm all for enforcing the speed limit and have no issues with my warning.  I was driving over the posted speed limit.  But how crazy that my first violation in Qatar was for speeding and I was driving ... 15 miles per hour!!  The posted speed in our compound is 9 miles per hour.  Do you know how hard it is to drive under 9 miles per hour??  Most cars idle faster than that!  But I digress, time to be more careful of my speed - time to drive with one foot on the brake!

Meanwhile, on my way home from Bible study today, I was stopped at a red light when the man in front of me jumped out of his vehicle, walked over to the car next to him, opened his door and started screaming at him!!  He jumped back in his vehicle when the light turned green but was clearly still agitated.  He refused to allowed any of the merging traffic in front of him (very common here) and stayed so close to the car in front of him that he he ran into him!!  The accident caused unbelievable traffic that took forever to get around.  I have no idea why this man was so angry, but I pray his day gets better.  Sadly this is all very normal for the roads in Doha .... And I got a warning for speeding while going 15 miles per hour!

Lesson of the day... Drive with one foot on the brake inside my compound and keep the doors locked everywhere I go!

2 comments:

  1. 1. I thought our speed limit was 15!?
    2. In front of Alhi hospital, a driver honked at the guy next to me and the local got out to yell. At first I thought he was coming to my car, thinking I was the one who honked at him to run the red light. Boy my heart was racing. Luckily he knew it was the guy behind him. Crazy world we live in:).

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    1. Jaci- I would have panicked if I thought he was coming after me! We see a lot crazy things on the roads here! And our speed limit is 15 kilometers per hour ... Which is ~ 9 miles per hour. Sorry to confuse you! :-)

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